What Does a Boiling Frog Have to Do With Befriending an Ex?

As you probably know by now, my entire family speaks in an invented, derp-tastic language that's mostly comprised of silly and/or unlikely metaphors for personal problems. Whenever my sister Beth hears about someone who's becoming friends with her ex after a weird/bad breakup, she says "boiling frog." Unsurprisingly, nobody knows what the hell she's talking about--not even me--until I finally asked her on GChat the other day. Here's what she said:

Beth: gradual transition

Beth: like boiling frog

me: explain

Beth: so the frog is in water that is gradually heating so it doesn't notice temp change until it's TOO LATE

Beth: = boiled frog

Beth: so you JUMP OUT WHILE YOU'RE STILL CUTE (cause the frog becomes ugly and gross when it is boiled)

me: ew

What she means, in English: hanging platonically with an ex could lead to re-felt feelings, denial of re-felt feelings and/or pretending to be totally over it when one is not actually over it "heats up the water," so to speak, and BAM, one of you could be boiled, because #boiledfrogs!

Apparently, since Al Gore documented the phenomenon in An Inconvenient Truth, the boiling frog principle has been applied to a number of other, far less important events in history (you know: the Cold War, insignificant stuff like that). Here is the technical definition via Wikipedia:

if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if it is placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. The story is often used as a metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually. The boiling frog story is generally told in a metaphorical context, with the upshot being that people should make themselves aware of gradual change lest they suffer eventual undesirable consequences.

So, if you are determined to be friends with an ex, just be sure you're not a boiling frog or boiling a frog! As a warning, here is a death metal song I found on YouTube called "Boiled Frogs," which is extremely abrasive and basically the melodic equivalent of boiled frog pain.

Isn't my sister a genius? Have you ever been in a "boiling frog" situation with an ex? Were you the boiled frog or was he the boiled frog? How did you deal with it?